UT's white-collar crime database could serve as national model

The Beehive State instituted the nation'south first statewide white-collar criminal database in two thousand-fifteenth. The registry, the brainchild of UT Attorney Common Sean Reyes, currently lists the pictures and information of more than one hundred offenders convicted of a host of second-degree felonies, including securities fraud, mortgage fraud, money laundering and theft by deception.

Utah’s novel approach to fighting white-collar crime could eventually widen across the country, helping residents of all fifty states identify crooks who may be plotting to rip them off.

The Beehive State instituted the nation'south first statewide white-collar criminal database in two thousand-fifteenth. The registry, the brainchild of UT Attorney Common Sean Reyes, currently lists the pictures and information of more than one hundred offenders convicted of a host of second-degree felonies, including securities fraud, mortgage fraud, money laundering and theft by deception.

“This is intended to be one more tool to fight the ever-expanding challenge of white-collar crime and white-collar fraud,” said State Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, a sponsor of the legislation that established the registry.

The president of the National Conference of State Legislators, Bramble said a significant no of lawmakers from other regions have inquired about Utah’s law.

“The premise is that it’s not a problem in any specific state; white-collar crime is a problem in every state,” Bramble told FoxNews. com.

State Rep. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, a sponsor of the bill in the UT House of Representatives, said legislators from across the country, including a NJ state senator, have called and are looking into enacting their own legislation. But McKell told FoxNews. com he also could look a database eventually existing on a national level.

“A lot of the large fraud cases are prosecuted federally,” he said. “It seems to me there’s an appetite by the Dept of Justice to consider putting their registries on the database as well.”

Utah’s registry lists all relevant offenders who’ve been convicted since Dec. thirty-one, two thousand five; however, once on the list, there are ways to be removed. If an offender pays full restitution, isn't convicted of another database-eligible offense and complies with Ct orders, they may be taken off in tenth years.

Most legislators, who passed the bill sixty-five to seven in the House and unanimously in the Senate, declare the database is an fundamental instrument to fight fraud on behalf of the public. Some opponents, however, worry it could be used as a public shaming mechanism, or to deny jobs or housing to ex-cons who may have otherwise rehabilitated themselves.

“When we were passing the bill I'd people asking me, ‘Is this a Scarlet Letter?’” McKell said. “And maybe it is. And I’m comfortable with that. If it’s a public shaming to the extent that it’s someone that’s stripped retirement accounts from seniors, I’m okay with that.”

Bramble said he’s heard from victims’ advocates who said the legislature didn’t go distant sufficient and offenders’ advocates who declare the legislature went too far.

“And frankly,” Bramble said, “if you've folks on the more extreme ends of the equations of both sides, generally you’ve struck a beautiful good balance.”

The racist and homophobic missives arrive as the SFPD has had to battle allegations of systemic racism within its ranks, including a separate scandal latest year in which fourteen other officers were accused of sending racist text messages.

According to IRS migration data, which uses individual income tax returns to record year-to-year address changes, over 250.000 CA residents moved out of the state between two thousand thirteen and two thousand fourteen, the latest period for which data was available.